"The rules of the game should be very clear.
Next, you need to use a coin toss to select the identities of [Rabbit] and [Hound], and the person who gets the Hound goes first.
Then, the side that becomes the [Rabbit] needs to use a dice roll to choose the rabbit's starting position, best two out of three."
Meari paused: "Huh? The rabbit's starting position isn't fixed?"
She thought the rabbit had a corresponding starting position with the hounds.
"According to the usual way of playing, it's fixed, but since it's a gamble, of course, we need to add some random elements to the game.
If it's fixed, it's too boring, isn't it?" The staff member said with a smile.
That's true, Meari shrugged and said no more.
The result of the first coin toss was that Ririka was the Hound and Saotome Meari was the Rabbit.
Great, I got the rabbit!
Meari clenched her fist happily, cheering herself on.
She took the dice from the staff member's hand and rolled it—the rabbit landed one square diagonally from the initial position.
If the board was "Summoner's Rift," then the rabbit was currently at the second tower on the "top lane."
Ririka, who drew the Hound, went first.
In board games, the "center" is a very important position, and even more so in this already small game.
Once the rabbit reaches the "center," the rabbit can basically declare victory, so the Hound side must occupy the center in their first move.
Ririka controlled the hound furthest from the rabbit, located in the "bottom lane," to move one step diagonally upwards, occupying the exact center of the board.
Meari already knew Ririka would move this way.
As if provoking the other party, she casually controlled the rabbit to leap one step further along the top lane, completely unafraid that a hound was blocking her path.
At this point, the hound lurking in the rearmost den also moved out of the den, heading to the "mid lane" second tower.
The rabbit cautiously looked around, deciding to temporarily retreat one step, back to the top lane second tower.
How could the hound facing the rabbit let it go so easily? He pursued the rabbit to its first tower, pressing forward, forcing the rabbit to jump back to its initial position.
The hound currently in the center of the board saw the rabbit return to its den and, feeling it was an unmissable opportunity, immediately jumped to the bottom-right diagonal corner, arriving at the opponent's bottom lane "second tower."
The rabbit saw an opportunity to seize the mid-line and quickly leaped out of its den again, arriving at the mid-lane—
Unfortunately, the hound on the top lane noticed the rabbit's movement, moved one step down, and arrived at the center of the star pattern first, occupying the mid-line.
And the rabbit also adapted, taking advantage of the empty space in the top row, she seized the opportunity to move one step up, preparing to escape from the top lane.
At this point, Ririka controlled the hound at the mid-lane second tower to jump one step up, arriving at the top lane to block the rabbit's path.
Saotome Meari, with an expression of "I knew it," boldly made the rabbit advance one more step.
Now, hounds were in front of her and below her; if her retreat was blocked by the hounds, the rabbit would be checkmated.
This move seemed like a bad one, as Meari actively pushed herself towards death.
The hounds' movements had completely blocked the rabbit's path, and the rabbit had nowhere to hide.
But this was only an appearance; in reality, it was not so.
Hounds had two restrictions: first, only one hound could move per turn, and second, hounds could only move forward, not backward, much like "pawns" in chess.
Because the hounds needed to prevent the rabbit from escaping the board, the central hound could not move from its position, and the hound blocking the top path also could not move; if it moved, the rabbit would be able to escape the board.
Therefore, Ririka could only move the hound closest to the rabbit's den, located at the bottom lane second tower at the rabbit's doorstep.
This hound moved one step up, arriving at the opponent's mid-lane second tower, just one step away from the rabbit.
Just one more step forward, and the rabbit would be checkmated.
However, at this moment, the rabbit jumped one step backward, returning to the top lane second tower.
Ririka could only control the hound on the top lane to move one step forward, relentlessly pursuing the rabbit.
Meari smiled slightly, letting her rabbit jump one step backward, returning to its home.
"..." Ririka fell silent.
Ririka's situation was extremely awkward now.
The hound on the upper path could still move one step forward, but then the rabbit could jump out from the lower path and escape the board without any obstruction.
The same applied to the hound in the center; as long as it gave up its central position, the rabbit could drive straight in.
Therefore, she could only move the hound facing the rabbit, blocking the rabbit's lower path.
And Meari's rabbit at this moment lightly leaped upwards, returning to the upper path.
Hounds cannot move backward; the upper path hound's forward movement was blocked by the rabbit, and the central hound could not give up the important "Heavenly Origin" position. The situation was the same as before; only the lower path hound could be moved.
And at this moment, the lower path hound had only two paths it could take: one was to go up and block the rabbit, and the other was to charge straight into the rabbit's nest.
The second direct charge route was immediately ruled out.
Once the hound moved forward, there was no turning back; it was equivalent to withdrawing from the battlefield. At this point, the rabbit could leisurely leave from the lower path position it had given up.
The remaining two hounds simply couldn't stop the rabbit.
Although there were two options, it could only choose one. So, it could only move up one more step, returning to its original position.
And the rabbit, at this moment, once again retreated into its home.
The situation had now reached a stalemate.
The hound could only use the single hound, making it repeat the previous operation, and the rabbit, she could also repeat the previous operation, constantly moving between its home and the upper path.
Three hounds, seemingly easy to catch the rabbit, but due to the rules' restrictions requiring all of the rabbit's paths to be sealed, they were instead constantly hampered.
And although the rabbit could not escape capture, it could easily toy with the hounds, moving and jumping among them. As long as it didn't make a mistake, it was impossible to be caught.
This was like a "ko" in Go; neither of them could do anything to the other, and they could cycle indefinitely.
But according to the rules, if the hounds couldn't catch the rabbit within thirty rounds, the rabbit would win.
In the remaining time, the rabbit only needed to lead the hounds in circles.
Meari did just that.
The first round, thirty turns ended.
The hounds still hadn't caught the rabbit.
The rabbit won.
"I won!" Meari said happily.
It was just as she had thought; the rabbit had a huge advantage in this game!
As long as she got the rabbit, she would have a seventy percent... no, a ninety percent win rate!
The rabbit was indeed her lucky charm!
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